Baby monitoring systems are becoming increasingly popular, and these systems generally comprise a baby unit that is placed close to a baby or child to be monitored, and a parent unit that communicates with the baby unit to provide a parent with information about the status of their baby. For example, the most common baby monitor systems have a microphone in the baby unit for picking up sounds (such as the baby crying), and these sounds are sent to the parent unit where they are broadcast for the parent to hear.
In many of these baby monitoring systems, the parent unit is also provided with a visual indicator, such as a series of lights, that gives the parent a visual indication of the level of noise or activity at the baby unit.
One such example is the Philips SCD499 baby monitor, in which a series of LEDs are provided on the parent unit to indicate if the baby has made a noise or cries. As the volume of noise made by the baby increases, more LEDs on the parent unit are switched on.
However, these monitoring systems suffer from the disadvantage that it is easy to miss an indication (whether visual or audible) that the baby has made a noise or has cried if the parent is away from the parent unit briefly (for example getting coffee from the kitchen or going into the garden), or if there is other ambient noise around the parent and/or if the parent unit is not directly in the parent's line of sight (for example when the parent is watching television).
It is therefore desirable to provide a baby monitoring system that does not suffer from this disadvantage.